The Future Is Japanese

Starred review from July 2, 2012
Since the debut of Viz's Haikasoru ("high castle") imprint in 2009, it has imported and translated the best of Japanese speculative fiction, earning Haikasoru editor Mamatas a Hugo nomination in 2011. This anthology, an attempt to link Japanese and American SF, continues that tradition of greatness. Eleven original stories and two reprints by notable authors both Japanese (Hideyuki Kikuchi, Toh EnJoe) and not (Catherynne M. Valente, Bruce Sterling) posit a diverse array of futures that may await Japan and the world. The bitter pessimism of the late Project Itoh's "The Indifference Engine" is balanced by the essential optimism of Issui Ogawa's "The Golden Bread"; the heroic sacrifice in Ken Liu's "Mono no Aware" contrasts with the examination of malevolent genius in TOBI Hirotaka's "Autogenic Dreaming." Mamatas and Washington, Haikasoru's editor-in-chief, have created a uniformly excellent anthology that will appeal to English-reading speculative fiction fans all over the world.